The latest example of this genre came Thursday, when the state-backed Xinhua news agency quoted a Peking University law professor in a story about the Rio Tinto case as saying that “large companies boasting high levels of ethical standards would likely choose to downgrade their codes of conduct and following ‘hidden rules’ in China.”

The “hidden rules,” in plain words, is commercial bribery, which is rampant because the cost of breaking the law is low enough that some foreign companies prefer taking the risk to bribe, the professor said.

“We need to reflect the roots of the problem,” a columnist wrote Friday in daily business newspaper China Business News. “There are many holes in the legal system from the quality of the law to the enforcement.”

Foreign businesses also have learned that even if they are caught in wrongdoing, they still can make the problem go away with further bribes sprinkled around China’s legal system.

To make the point about the cost of this reality, an article from China’s top secret watchdog National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets this week said “the problem really comes from within.”

To put that number in perspective, the article said that is larger than the total annual tax revenue of the four biggest Chinese cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing, plus Liaoning province. And in a comparison designed to bring the scandal home to the Chinese people, the article said that this means each Chinese citizen effectively paid $70 to the Australian miner and to the corrupted Chinese counterparts.

The Rio Tinto case should serve as a red flag, a columnist wrote in Chinese Business News, adding that it is time for China to draw a clear line in its business ethics and beef up business laws to put such behavior to an end.